Iowa’s Jake Rudock needed only to make sure he didn’t lose it for the Hawkeyes.

One big drive by Lynch — and an even bigger mistake by Rudock — helped hand the Huskies a huge road victory.

Mathew Sims hit a 36-yard field goal with four seconds left, and Northern Illinois rallied to beat Iowa 30-27 yesterday.

Lynch threw for 275 yards and three touchdowns for the Huskies, who scored 10 points in the final 5:05 to give coach Rod Carey his first win.

Cornerback Jimmie Ward intercepted Rudock with 1:17 left. He returned it to the Iowa 30-yard line, setting up the winning kick.

“Our guys believe, and they have a belief that if it gets to that situation, we’re going to make the plays,” said Carey, who took over the Huskies before their 31-10 loss to Florida State in last season’s Orange Bowl. “And we did, and that belief saw us through some tough times.”

Rudock threw for 256 yards and a touchdown but was intercepted twice in his debut for Iowa, which lost its seventh straight game going back to last season.

“Turnovers are tough to overcome, and we had three of them,” coach Kirk Ferentz said.

For most of the afternoon, the Hawkeyes did a decent job containing the explosive Lynch, who last season became the first quarterback in Football Bowl Subdivision history to throw for more than 3,000 yards and rush for more than 1,500.

He showed why he’s among the nation’s best quarterbacks with the outcome in doubt.

Lynch engineered a six-play, 75-yard drive in just 1:37, tying the score at 27 with a 33-yard TD pass to Da’Ron Brown with 5:05 left in the fourth quarter.